The past week was an amazing whirlwind of journalism that I will never forget. Through participating in Next Generation Radio, I’ve had the opportunity to experience nearly every part of how modern journalism is made. And I met some wonderful people along the way.
I took photos of my subject and recorded different kinds of audio in the field. I learned how to organize that audio before uploading it into Audition. I improved my understanding of Audition with help from my mentor, Laura Rice, and audio engineers, Selena and Sean. Laura and digital editor, Stephanie Federico, helped me sharpen a written piece about my subject along with a headline and subheadline. I wrote and, with Sean’s help, filmed a stand-up intro for the entire package.
Before this program, I had only created one piece of audio journalism for a class this past spring. It was just an interview that I edited down for easier listening. Creating a non-narrated audio piece on one subject seemed like trying to learn a foreign language. But I still wanted to learn how to do it.
Luckily, my “femtor,” Laura, gave me valuable tips on how to record audio before I captured any sound from my subject. This guidance helped me obtain solid sound from my subject early on in the process. I still had to capture a bit more audio later in the week but this helped us start off on the right track.
A mistake I made that I will never make again is forgetting to grab “room tone” of the space where I interviewed my subject. Although it did not significantly affect the end product, having that would’ve made our audio engineers’ lives easier when mixing and editing.
Another thing that is imprinted into my mind from this week is to trust in the work. Nothing in life works out quite the way you imagined it and that’s ok. The key to getting through adversity like this is to control what you can and keep believing that things will work out.
It also helps if you have a strong support system that won’t let you get down on yourself. That is exactly what I found in Laura. She treated me with such kindness and kept me walking along the path to success. I am fortunate and forever grateful to have worked alongside her.
I’m so impressed with the entire Next Generation Radio team. They are all complete pros at what they do and each was a pleasure to work with. My experience with everyone convinces me that nearly anything is possible when you have a strong team that is working together toward a common goal. I am incredibly thankful to have been given this opportunity to work with y’all. Your work inspires me to keep going and improving so I can keep making strong journalism. I can’t thank y’all enough.
